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Longevity for the Lazy: A Low-Work Campaign Plan to Living to 100 and Beyond

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You Can Live to 100 and Beyond

Do you want to live your longest healthiest life, but have a hard time dieting and exercising? If so, "Longevity for the Lazy" is for you. In it, cardiologist, public health expert, strategist, and healthcare system leader, Dr. Richard Malish reveals easy secrets to healthy longevity. Specifically, he asserts

Humans (and our primate cousins) are lazy by nature and evolutionary design. Diet and exercise are counter to our instincts, motivations, and physical requirements. Consequently, they offer a challenging proposition as a method to achieve a long, healthy life.

Even so, living a long and healthy life despite laziness is imaginable. You are about to read a book that turns what you know about health and aging upside down. You can have a long life without making massive lifestyle changes. What if you took a new approach to medicine and health?

Forge your well-executed campaign plan with one of the Army’s top docs. Relying on an approach based on traditional military strategy, public health fundamentals, and scientific evidence, Dr. Malish reveals the following secrets to living to 100 and Longevity Mental Model exists that teaches us how we will continue to expand our lifespans. Know it and you will know how to augment your lifespan.Transhumanism, the ability to prolong lifespans through human invention, is a modern reality. Embrace its existence to optimize its benefit.Living healthfully into the 100s doesn’t require new diets or exercise regimens.Target the two biggest threats—the diseases that will kill you.Be on the defensive—live as healthy a lifestyle as you can—but more importantly, take offensive measures by taking medicine and getting screened for the likely killers.Choose medical providers who understand human motivation and its strengths and weaknesses. Only medical realists can perfectly support your longevity journey.
Learn more unconventional lifestyle advice from a cardiologist, public health expert, and military strategist who thinks we can leverage a new understanding of our role in prolonging our lifespans—to 100 and beyond.

203 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2024

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Richard Malish

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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Profile Image for Kenneth.
607 reviews12 followers
June 12, 2025
After quite some bit of thought, I'm giving this book 5 stars. It's clearly written. It sets out the argument the writer wanted to make. I have no problem with that.
Now, a lot of this book sets out how to think about longevity from the point of view of a doctor. He is now a consultant on health issues and such, which is great. But I'm not someone who is ever going to move the needle of public health. He's a transhumanist, and this philosophical approach is heavily reigned in, it still is a driving force. But he's up front about where he's coming from, where he sees us, as a society going, or where he would like us to be going and what he bases his arguments on.
So cool.
Get some of these new drugs from your doctor.
And he makes some great points here. But our healthcare delivery business is so broken, so hard to navigate. See your doctor, if you have the time and the energy to push for that. The system doesn't make that easy. Get the new drugs, if you insurance that you overpay for will cover it.
My biggest take aways were I should monitor my blood pressure more closely to make sure I'm properly medicated. And I should lose weight, but it's not as bad as I thought because BMI is a garbage way for an individual to measure these things.
72 reviews2 followers
June 2, 2025
we all need to read this book

Many Doctors are talking about getting beyond the idea they are only here when you are sick. Here is an excellent example to take us there. I will be having this conversation with my primary Doc — who recently told me - at age 71 - I am his healthiest patient. Dr Mali’s provides very enlightening steps for us to get to 100 yr old
Profile Image for Book Reviewer.
128 reviews13 followers
August 12, 2025
Longevity for the Lazy is a clever, practical, and surprisingly compassionate guide to extending your life without overhauling your entire existence. Dr. Richard Malish, a military physician turned longevity strategist, uses his deep knowledge of public health, cardiology, and human nature to offer a framework he calls the “Longevity Mental Model.” Rather than pitching another trendy diet or rigid routine, the book helps readers understand the major causes of early death, namely atherosclerosis and cancer, and how to fight them with minimal effort. It blends scientific research, history, and strategy into a mental map for living longer, even for those of us who’d rather do the bare minimum.

What I like most about this book is its voice. It's equal parts seasoned doctor and war-hardened realist, but with an unexpected sense of humor and humility. Dr. Malish writes like someone who’s seen behind the curtain and is now giving you the straight truth without fluff. He acknowledges up front that most people are lazy, and rather than judging it, he embraces it. The book is packed with practical advice, yet it’s never preachy. The core message, kill your killers early and often, lands hard, but he delivers it with enough compassion and realism that I didn’t feel overwhelmed. I appreciated that he doesn’t idealize superhuman health habits. Instead, he arms the reader with simple strategies that don’t require daily marathons or going vegan overnight.

At times, I found myself surprised by how motivating the book was, especially considering its “lazy” theme. It made me feel less guilty for being myself. The military metaphors, enemies, campaigns, and offensive weapons worked better than I expected. They added urgency without melodrama. The science is solid but never dense, and the recurring “Take-Home Messages” made the lessons stick. That said, if you’re looking for glossy photos, flashy life hacks, or someone to tell you aging is optional, this isn’t the book. It’s grounded in reality, and that’s what makes it powerful. It respects your time and your intelligence.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by wellness advice, or if you know what you should be doing but never seem to get around to it, this book is for you. It’s also a great fit for skeptics, minimalists, and anyone who wants to understand the science of longevity without feeling shamed into perfection. Longevity for the Lazy won’t guilt you into green smoothies and CrossFit. Instead, it’ll make you think smarter, act sooner, and want to live better.
1 review1 follower
June 11, 2025
A Thoughtful, Science-Based Health Guide – Worth Reading

I'm a clinical neurologist, and I really enjoyed this book. I recommend it to anyone who cares about their long-term health.

This isn’t your typical “longevity” book that just tells you to eat like you're in a Blue Zone and run marathons. It’s about using science-based methods to live longer and healthier—things like understanding medications, staying on top of screenings, and combining all that with a healthy lifestyle.

What I didn’t love:

1. I wish the book had started with the chapter on evidence-based medicine (Part VI). Without that context, the first chapters can come off a bit too pro-medication and dismissive of natural approaches—like a balanced diet, exercise, mental well-being, and most importantly, sleep hygiene.
As a neurologist, I can’t stress this enough: if your sleep is a mess, all the pills in the world won’t save you.


2. On alcohol: even moderate, regular drinking (yes, even red wine) can mess with REM sleep. That’s not a small thing. I don’t think any medical professional should be promoting alcohol use as part of a healthy lifestyle.



What I did love:

Pretty much everything else. Especially the emphasis on patient–provider teamwork. That’s often overlooked, but it’s absolutely key to real, lasting health.

Final thought: Be open-minded, be adherent—and read it through to the end.
It’s worth it.
Thank you, Dr. Malish!

Profile Image for Alicia Bayer.
Author 10 books248 followers
September 4, 2025
Um…. Wow. I don’t know that I’ve ever read a health book by a medical doctor (or anyone) with this combination of advice. Some highlights…. Diseases related to high blood pressure, high blood sugar, cholesterol and cancer are now the biggest killers. Lifestyle changes won’t do much to help any of it. Take statins, blood pressure medication, drugs like Ozempic, Metformin (a blood sugar and diabetes medication) and other medication. He says that even people who aren’t diabetic should take Metformin. Patients are ignorant if they don’t want to take medication. Take antidepressants too (he calls them miracle pills). Have a glass of wine or two every night. Drink a lot of coffee. Get a doctor you like and ask for lots of screenings and medications. Aim to be at “normal” weight at the lowest, better to be overweight or class one obese because you live longer if you’re overweight. Just take all the drugs and you’ll be golden.

About the only advice he gives that is remotely like most healthy living advice is at the very end he says to eat more vegetables and to do some exercise and walking. Otherwise it’s all about taking lots and lots of prescriptions, getting vaccinated and doing aggressive cancer screening.

This may be welcome advice for many people. It was not a good fit for me.

I read an advance copy of this book via netgalley.
23 reviews
October 3, 2025
As someone coming from the personal training/health coaching angle, I found this information to be both disheartening and, paradoxically, encouraging. Disheartening because Malish asserts that all the dietary improvements and increases in physical activity that I have worked so hard for are barely moving the needle compared to medications. Encouraging because if my doctor recommends medication, I don't have to feel like I have failed at living a healthy life.

I deducted one star because I would like to see more evidence , like studies that show that low risk patients live longer with long-term medication use. I am not convinced that we are all better off taking statins, BP meds, Metformin and GLP_1 medication. I am open to the idea but want to see some well-designed studies.
1 review
July 6, 2025

My hope is that this book helps people. It is a book designed to assist those that think "self-help" books require an impossible level of motivation. Authors writing in the health and wellness space often assume that the audience is missing knowledge on how to live healthfully. I contend that most of us know the foundations of healthy living. What we are missing is the motivation to overcome all the nuisances that get in our way. We need short-cuts, hacks, and accelerators. We need information that makes sense and fits with our inherent laziness. "Longevity for the Lazy" provides such tools and a way of looking at the healthcare system that will benefit all of us.... because laziness is a surmountable condition of the human species!

Richard Malish, MD
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews

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